Christmas Kisses
by alias of a girl
Summary: A cute little one-shot about Harry's gift to Hermione on Christmas day.


Hey! This is a little fluffy oneshot that I decided to write for Christmas! Cool? Cool. HGHP pairing. Takes place in 7th year

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Hermione was sitting one of the large squishy chairs in the Gryffindor common room, all alone, staring up at the huge Christmas tree that she was sitting next to. Her brown eyes were wide in wonder. She was usually a very down to Earth girl, but there was something about this time of the year that made her act very differently from normal. It was this time of year that actually brought out the real Hermione: the relaxed Hermione, the generous Hermione, the insanely happy Hermione. She was slowly coming to the conclusion that she was too very much focused on school and marks most of the time. She had decided recently that she needed to relax. She was all alone in the common room because she was one of only four Gryffindors who had stayed for the holidays (the others being Harry, Ron and Lavender). Ron and Lavender were off doing _something_ in one of the empty classrooms (she didn't dare try to guess what) and Harry was gone…somewhere. Probably gone to talk to Dumbledore. He'd done so a lot since the final defeat of Voldermort nearing the end of last year. Hermione supposed Dumbledore owed Harry quite an explanation after what happened. A snap and clatter drew Hermione out of her trance. One of the window shutters had been blown open. She stood up and closed it. Even that took all of her strength, and her hands felt nearly frostbitten even after only a few moments of exposing them to the wind and snow. It was quite a nasty blizzard they were having. What a Christmas Eve it was. A set of footsteps caught her attention and she turned to face the entrance. Harry walked in, hair and glasses speckled with snow, cloak soaking wet and face very red.

"Harry! What happened?" She asked, snatching up a blanket for him as he pulled off the cloak.

"I went for a bit of a walk. Wasn't the greatest idea." He replied as Hermione tossed the blanket around his shoulders. She took his glasses and wiped them off while he went to sit down. She wandered back over to him and placed them back on him. Her fingers brushed against his skin and she realized how truly cold he was.

"You're freezing, are you sure you're alright?" She asked worriedly, touching his face. He grinned at her.

"You're fussing over me like Mrs. Weasly." He told her bluntly. Hermione stared at him. He started to laugh. "I'm just kidding. You looked horrified. I'm going to have to tell her that next time I see her."

"Harry! Please don't..!" She begged. He just grinned. "Harry, no-." she paused, staring at him. "You're teasing me?!" He started to laugh again. She smacked him.

"Hey! That wasn't nice!" He complained, his grin still plastered across his face.

"Well you're not nice Harry Potter!" Hermione retorted weakly. Harry laughed again. Hermione settled with sitting down opposite him and sticking her tongue out at him. Harry's eyes glittered mischievously.

"Don't stick your tongue out unless you intend to use it." He told her, concealing a smile. Hermione stared at him, shocked. She overcame it momentarily, smiled evilly and stuck her tongue out at him again. Harry could help but laugh. It was entirely obvious to everyone but these two that they were both smitten with each other. It had been since the beginning of the year. Harry had told one person, Ron, and he had refused Ron's repeated attempts to convince him that Hermione was just as much in love with him. Hermione, on the other hand, had told no one. Absolutely no one. However, even the most oblivious of people noticed it; just not Harry and Hermione. It's true what they say then: love really is blind.

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A good while later, Harry and Hermione were still in the common room when Ron and Lavender walked in. They had been a couple for about a month now, and made no attempt to hide it whatsoever. Then again, why would they want to? Hermione looked up at the pair from the book she was reading, smiling innocently.

"Hey, Lavender." she called quietly. Lavender glanced at her. Hermione tried to hide her wicked grin with her book. "Did you have fun?" She asked in her most innocent of voices. Lavender glared at her and stuck out her tongue. Hermione and Harry burst into laughter.

"That just says it all." Harry said a moment later, still chuckling. Both Ron and Lavender were looking at them like they were mental, and both of them were also blushing furiously. Ron mumbled something and Lavender smiled. Then, the two of them went into their separate dorms. Hermione pushed her chair a little closer to the fire, looking for warmth. She had her knees pulled up to her chest and rested her chin on her knee, reading her book again. She was wearing her school uniform, over which she had a sweatshirt bigger than one Harry had ever seen before. He had his school books sitting in front of him and had been procrastinating with actually getting down to reading his homework chapters. He picked up one of them and opened it. However, he had no intention of reading it. While he held the book up open in front of him, he was looking past the book, at Hermione. Her hair was back in a messy bun, but one strand of hair fell into her face. She pushed it back behind her ear absently, only to have it fall back in her face a moment later. He scanned her face. Her eyes were passing intently over the page in front of her. Her nose wrinkled in concentration for a moment, then relaxed. Harry hid a smile. His eyes finally settled on her lips. She was chewing her bottom lip, a habit that she'd been indulging in quite a lot in recent months. Of course, that was the one habit of hers that drove him completely insane. She was humming something he vaguely recognized. He took in the entire picture, which was a perfect one. She was sitting, illuminated by the flickering light of the fire, a huge green Christmas tree spread out behind her, and she herself looking incredibly beautiful. A moment later, he noticed that Hermione was staring right back at him, smiling slightly.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" she asked. Harry nodded, dumbfounded. She looked up at the tree. "It's really quiet breathtaking." she continued. Relief flooded through Harry as he realized that she'd thought he was staring at the tree, not at her. She glanced at him, eyebrows raised. He raised his eyebrows back.

"What?" He asked suspiciously. She grinned.

"First, you said you'd already finished your Divination homework." she told him. Harry looked down. He was indeed holding his Divination text book in his hands. "And second, you were holding it upside down." she said, stifling a laugh. Harry could feel himself blushing. Hermione smiled, standing up. She walked over to him and paused, looking down at him. She looked as if she was trying to decide on something. Her cheeks started to redden and she grabbed her notebook which had been sitting on the table and started toward the girl's dorm. "Night, Harry."

"Night." he replied, watching her go up the stairs. Once he heard the door close, he stood up and gathered his things, thinking about what could have caused Hermione to blush so badly. He shrugged and headed up to bed.

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Ron was lying sleeplessly in his bed when Harry walked into the dorm room. He sat up and glared at Harry suspiciously.

"What was so funny exactly?" he asked, trying to sound as sharp as possible. Harry tried to keep from laughing, but his efforts were no more successful than Ron's were.

"Don't worry about it Ron." Harry said, flopping down on his bed. Ron shrugged.

"You're just jealous."

"What, of you? Are you kidding me?" Harry asked, grinning.

"Shut up. You know it's true. I've got my girl and you don't have the guts to get yours." Ron retorted. "Tell her tomorrow." He suggested.

"Why?"

"Why not? Hermione's always in a good mood around Christmas. And this is going to be your last Christmas here with her, too. It's now or never Harry, and you know it." There was silence for a moment.

"Damn it Ron. I hate it when you're right."

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Hermione yawned, squinting at the sun that had gotten in her eyes and woken her up. She lay still for a moment.

"Merry Christmas, Lavender." She murmured, not wanting to move. It was cold, and her bed was so very cozy. Lavender didn't reply. She rolled over to get a better view of the girl's bed, and saw that Lavender was gone. Hermione groaned and stood up, wrapping her comforter around her. Lavender was gone out of the dorm. Hermione sighed, getting changed. She put on jeans, a red tank top and a cozy green sweater. She smiled tiredly as she looked at herself in the mirror. "Very festive." She said approvingly. She stepped into her slippers and headed into the common room. Lavender still wasn't anywhere to be seen. Harry was walking down the stairs as she settled herself next to the dying fire. He yawned and smiled.

"Merry Christmas, Mione."

"Merry Christmas to you too, Harry. Where's Lavender?"

"Good question. Where's Ron?" Harry asked, a smile slowly spreading across his face. Hermione shrugged.

"Maybe we really don't want to know." Hermione decided while Harry sat down next to her.

"They didn't even bother to open their gifts yet." Harry observed. He picked one of the packages up and studied it carefully. "Speaking of gifts…"

The pair of them knelt on the carpet for a while, talking and opening their presents. They both got inedible baked goods of some kind from Hagrid, another sweater each from Mrs. Weasly, and a Christmas card from Dumbledore and the teachers. Harry got new Quidditch gloves and a vial that caused Harry to turn very red when he red the label and refuse to tell Hermione what it was, all from Ron. Hermione got a funny little instrument that ould measure any sort of unit you could possibly want to measure from Ron. There was one more gift under the tree, and Harry picked it up, reading the label. He started to unwrap it.

"From you?" He asked. Hermione nodded. He opened it to find a large, leather bound book. He opened it. Inside, it was full of pictures of him, Ron and Hermione for the first handful of pages. After that, there were a couple of pictures of his parents, and then a few of Sirius. Hermione looked worriedly at him.

"Harry? Are you alright?" She asked, biting her lip again.

"Where did you get these?" He asked quietly, pointing to the ones of his parents.

"I did a little bit of searching. Some of them are from Hagrid, some from Dumbledore, and some from Lupin. I'm sorry." She said, lowering her eyes to the floor.

"Sorry? Why?" He paused, searching for the right words. "This is one of the best gifts I've ever gotten. Don't be sorry." His voice was quiet. Hermione's eyes lit up.

"Really?" she asked, smiling. Harry nodded, smiling in return. Hermione's heart melted. Her cheeks turned a dusty shade of pink. Her eyes flicked underneath the tree; seeing no other gifts, she stood up. "Would you like to go for a walk?" she offered. Harry took her hand. She thought he wanted a hand up, but to her surprise, he pulled her back down.

"You didn't think I'd forget about you, did you?" He whispered. She shook her head in response, unable to speak or to pull her gaze from his. She was already tangled irreversibly in his eyes. When he looked down, she was about to look down, too. From his pocket, he pulled a small, beautifully wrapped box. She unwrapped it with trembling hands. She lifted the lid of the box, her heart leaping into her throat. To her surprise, she found a handful of red and green Hershey's Kisses inside. She looked up at Harry, confused.

"Kisses?" she asked curiously. Harry smiled.

"Kisses." he replied, his voice barely a whisper. Before Hermione new what was happening, his arms found their way around her waist, pulling her closer and closing the small gap between them. His lips captured hers and any rational thought she might have had was completely forgotten. After a few moments, Harry pulled away, though not much, looking for her reaction. She opened her eyes and smiled mischievously at him.

"_Kisses_ is plural, Harry. That means there's more than one." Harry shrugged, smiling warmly back at her.

"Maybe I'm going to make you wait, my dear Mione." He said airily. Hermione frowned and started to chew her lip again. Harry sighed, tilted her chin up so she was facing him and kissed her softly. Hermione looked at him curiously.

"I thought you said I was going to have to wait." she said teasingly.

"I can't help it when you do that." He admitted.

"Do what?" Hermione asked. She wondered what 'that' was and absently began to chew her lip again.

"That." he whispered, kissing her again and again. Hermione laughed softly.

"I'll have to remember that." she whispered, resting her head on his shoulder. Harry let his lips brush against her neck. She reacted simply by snuggling closer to him. "Merry Christmas, Harry."


End file.
